


A Helping Hand

by RedFive



Series: The Wheel of Time Mile High Club [1]
Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ficlet, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Book 14: A Memory of Light, Stone Wolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-01 21:46:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20265010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedFive/pseuds/RedFive
Summary: Perrin and Gaul accompany Bain and Chiad back to the Aiel Waste to celebrate a wedding and say their farewells. But as one chapter in Perrin's life closes, another is about to begin because there are no beginnings or endings to the...aw, hell. Enough of this. Look, there are sweat tents and smut. Enjoy. ;-)About the Series: Sometimes I go on long plane trips and take prompts from my Twitter followers. Here are the collected results of those sprints for the #TwitterOfTime community.





	A Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Based on prompts for @WhiteTowerPod and @EliceASmith who requested Perrin/Gaul and Lan/Rhuarc in a sweat tent respectively. Post AMOL, AU. Enjoy!
> 
> Beta’ed by @HeyJessyPants.

Sweat beaded at the nape of his neck and slowly crept down his back. Perrin shivered inside the sweat tent. Not because he was cold. It was only cold at night in the Aiel Waste, which was several hours away. But his sand-caked skin itched abominably as the sweat peeled a thick layer of dirt off his body. He reached over his shoulder to wipe it away, and...no luck. He was too broad in the shoulders to reach. 

_’There is supposed to be a stick,’_ he remembered forgetting the name for it. A quick search turned up nothing though leaving Perrin to wonder whether he was supposed to bring his own.

“Blood and ashes, what I wouldn’t give for an actual bath,” he grumbled thinking of the deep copper tub he’d left behind in Edmonds Field to escort Bain and Chiad back to the Waste to celebrate the second marriage of Bain’s mother...ostensibly. But Perrin knew this for what this really was—it was a goodbye. Faile had passed away several years ago after a tragic fall from a horse that killed her instantly. For the love of her, the Maidens stayed with Perrin and his household while he and the children mourned. That was four years ago and while the falcon-sized hole in his heart still ached, the pain was no longer the sharp acidic burn of a recent loss. 

“Why waste the water, Perrin Aybara, when you could simply ask for a helping hand?” Came a deep and familiar voice. 

Caught by surprise, Perrin whirled around and to his horror, found himself growling at Gaul...a very a naked Gaul, who stood smiling at the entrance of the sweat tent. 

_‘I’m not a wolf. I’m a man like any other,’_ he reminded himself. Though...perhaps not quite as _much_ of a man as Gaul was, apparently. 

Perrin caught himself staring and felt his face grow hot. _‘What under the Light am I doing?’_ He was being a woolhead for starter. It was just Gaul—his friend of many years. 

Gaul’s smile fell away immediately seeing that he had caused Perrin discomfort. “I did not mean to startle you, Perrin. I have toh.”

“No, Gaul, you don’t have any toh to me.” Perrin said reflexively. “It’s my—,” fault, he started, but the look of anger on Gaul’s face silenced Perrin and compounded his embarrassment.

Light, but the Aiel were prickly about ji’e’toh. Perrin had known Gaul, Bain, and Chiad; for years, and yet, still, he made these mistakes when flustered. “I’m sorry too, Gaul.” He had not meant to shame Gaul like that. He rather liked Gaul. _Really_ liked Gaul in fact. Especially without his shirt.

This attraction to men was new and only for Gaul who had been Perrin’s closest male companion since his wife’s death and Mat’s disappearance across the Aryth ocean.

“I would assist you, if I may, Perrin.”

Perrin sighed knowing there was no way out of it now that he had insulted the man and presented his back to Gaul for washing. Maybe Gaul had remembered the bloody stick. What did they call it again? A staera? “As you wish,” he said. With luck, they could get this over with quickly before Perrin messed up again or spent any longer thinking about the shape of Gaul’s thighs. At times like this, he missed Rand. Rand was better with the Aiel and never made the same gaffe twice. 

Rand. Faile. Both gone. And who the hell knew where Mat was these days—though rumor suggested he might not even be on the continent anymore. Perrin was alone…alone with Gaul. That didn’t happen often, and never while they were both naked. Gaul’s scent was strong. He smelled of sweat and limestone, which on any other person Perrin would have turned his nose at. But there was a bite to Gaul’s scent that appealed to the aspect of Perrin’s nature that was wilder in form and function. Gaul was no wolfbrother, but he was a fine hunter nonetheless. Striker, the wolves had named him during the battles he had fought alongside Perrin—though his actual wolf-name was more complicated than that. The wolves saw Gaul as a snake sitting coiled and well concealed by the rocky crags of his homeland. Death waited at the end of his fangs, the deadly spears he carried in his human form, but he rarely needed more than one strike to bring down his foe.

Perrin shook his head to free himself of the memories of the War of the Shadow and their skirmishes against the Shaido. Those were dangerous memories to dwell on too long and getting harder to resist in peace-times. With Perrin’s eldest nearly full grown and eager to assume the mantle of Lord of the Two Rivers whenever Perrin chose to step aside, it was getting harder to resist abandoning it all for the forests and a life among the wolves. A simple life. A life free of grief and the tedium of governance. 

It was Gaul’s touch that startled Perrin back to the present, his touch and a faint predatory air tickling Perrin’s senses. The Aiel had placed the knuckles of one hand against Perrin’s lower back and then _slowly_ dragged them up the length of his spine. Perrin arched away at first then settled back down. Faile had been gone a long time and he had not allowed the touch of another. It was strange but not unpleasant like a half-remembered dream. 

At the nape of his neck, Gaul’s fingers uncurled slowly and massaged a knot of tension that had settled there. “Wetlanders, you are all so stiff, which is saying something, since in the Three Fold Land only the hardest of us survive to be as old as you and I.” 

It was warm in the sweat tent, and despite the fact that they were still standing, Perrin felt the beginnings of sleep tickling his brain like a wolf calling. “I feel considerably less stiff than I did a minute ago,” Perrin murmured. 

The calloused pads of Gaul’s fingers slid down Perrin’s spine again wiping the sweat and dry skin away, and the relief Perrin felt after being relieved of that itch was so..._satisfying_ that he found himself leaning back into Gaul muttering about having toh of his own. 

“Not at all. It is my _pleasure_ to help you in this way.” The predatory smell grew stronger and Perrin could feel his blood warm in response. Whether in challenge or hunger, Perrin could not say. 

Behind him, Perrin heard Gaul stick his finger in his mouth and suck it clean of sweat, and the sound settled his internal debate. Just picturing Gaul with his fingers down his throat sparked a longing within Perrin that caused his abdominal muscles to clench. He could smell Gaul’s arousal too. It was not the first time either. Perrin had smelled it on Gaul before. He had smelled it on himself too with increasing frequency although never as strongly as he did now. 

Perrin wanted to touch himself. It had been so long since he’d been physically intimate with someone. But was he ready? Intimacy was difficult for Perrin as he only ever desired men and women with whom he had become close with as friends first. However, Faile had been his only sexual partner, and after her death, he had not desired anyone else till now. But how did one ask for...that? Perrin was out of practice. Not that he had ever been any good at it when he was in practice. 

“Humor me,” he ordered and spread his legs a little wider. 

Gaul shifted and slipped his own erection comfortably between Perrin’s legs. They were the perfect height for this. Perrin swallowed hard and curled his toes in the sand. _‘Light was this really happening?’_ Perrin has always wondered what it would be like with a man, particularly with a man of a similar build to his own. 

“Why would you have toh, Wetlander?” Gaul growled into the side on his neck. 

“I want you to do it again.” Perrin said softly and Gaul put his knuckle against Perrin’s spine again. 

Perrin reached down between his own legs and slipped a hand around the shaft of his cock. It took effort to stop himself from rubbing himself, but he wanted himself to last. With Gaul, Perrin wouldn’t have to be careful. He wouldn’t have to worry about his strength. 

“Lower,” Perrin said with more confidence and Gaul’s hand sank halfway down his back. 

“Lower,” Perrin said again and shut his eyes as he began to stroke himself. 

Gaul’s hand drifted further down stopping at his tailbone. 

“Gaul,” Perrin snapped with mounting frustration. 

The pressure on Perrin’s back lifted, and for a moment, Perrin felt nearly ready to scream until he heard Gaul spit into his hand. “How much do you want, Perrin Aybara?” 

“Burn you. All of it, you fool.” 

Gaul laughed as he slipped two fingers inside Perrin. “Just checking to what lengths you would go, my friend.” 

_ **BONUS SCENE: MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER SWEAT TENT** _

Rhuarc lay against the Warder’s broad chest listening to the amorous exertions from the neighboring tent with amusement while Lan slept. The pair of younger men were already on round two while the older warriors were still only one sortie in...but that would soon change. The gusto that the young Stone Dog and Wetlander invested in each other was infectious and Rhuarc could feel his energy returning more rapidly because of the outside stimulus. 

Lan too must have felt it, even in sleep. Already his breathing was more rapid than before and his snores less thunderous. 

When Rhuarc felt ready, he adjusted himself and reached down between his legs. His dick was soft to the touch but soon began to thicken as he stroked himself. The movement roused Lan fully from sleep. 

“Are they still going at it?” He said groggily. 

“So are we,” Rhuarc said and reached for one of Lan’s nipples with his mouth while he continued his self-ministrations. 

Lan buried his fingers in Rhuarcs grey hair. “Do the Aiel ever quit?” 

Rhuarc answered with silence and kept at it until the Warder was moaning as loudly as the wolf cub next door. When Rhuarc was satisfied he lifted himself up onto his arms and hovered over Lan. 

“Do you switch, Warder?” 

Lan smirked. “I do if it’s worth my time.” 

Rhuarc belted out a laugh, happy to have found a partner who was willing to satisfy both desires. “Then on your stomach, Lan Gaidin, and allow me to demonstrate the stamina of my people.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked my work please consider leaving a comment or saying hello on Twitter at either [@RedFiveWritingBy](https://twitter.com/red5writingby) or [@lgbtq_wot](https://twitter.com/lgbtq_wot).


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